News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-07-28

OF an eminent member cf that body
much to his satisfaction / am sure. Al
ter this failure my father gave me Els
a year and told me to go ahead and d
what 1 thought myself suited for.
During these business attempts
had made very good use of my odd tim
b. studying Latin and reading up. S.
when | left the Stock Exchange I tool
apartments at Red Hill and there wrote
my first novel, "Life's Masquerade
'What first turned your mind to writ
ing2"
'tThe idea first sruck me off Capt
Horn. | had a little difference with tht
captain and consequently was living
down below on bread and water. Ol
course there was nothing to dc
down there but pass the time as best I
could and / managed to get copy OF
'Lalla Rookh, and began reading it. As
L read thought there was nothing to
! keep me from writing poetry if | tried.
! Sc right there / began and wrote what
L called poetry. but which happily is
now lost. ''Lalla Rookh is hardly the
sort of book one would expect to turn a
/ persons mind to story writing, bat it
/ started me-"
/ ''At the time l wrote 'Life's Masquer-
ade' Chas. Ii. Wood, son of Mrs. Wood.
the novelist, had little publishing office
| in Lavingstock street, Coyent Garden.
He offered me $50 for the work, got it,
and | am very sure much regretted lis
bargain. After that [ went to Deal and
there wrote five act tragedy III blank
verse entitled Fra Angelo. This l sent
to Walter Montgomery, the actor, to see
! if he would bring it out at some London
/ theatre. He thought it splendid, took
! the Haymarket Theatre in the very
hight of the dog days, when all London
was out of town, produced it, and not
very long afterwards shot himself while
insane. 1t fell very fiat, as fiat rs :. five
act blank verse tragedy in hot weather
can fall.
1.-The first night the play was produc-
ed rather funny thing happened. ],
of course, had one of the best boxes in
the house, so that I could watch the
effect of the play on the audience. The
next box to mine was occupied by an
elderly gentleman and two young ladies.
When the play was going on these folks
kept up constant chatter, varied now
and then with litter that particularly
annoyed me. | wanted them to admire
the play. At length l reached the limit
of my patience, and, rising in my box, [
first riveted the old gent with my gaze
and then said sternlv: Order; sir, order
l want to hear the play, sir. The old
gentleman was immensely surprised and
very shortly afterwards Twas too. When
the curtain went down there were cries
for the author, and l arose, proudly
9rl my I
steal a glance at the Old gent as much
as to say: Now, sir, you see whom you
have been disturbing Well, You can
imagine my surprise when Il few min
utes afterwards [ was told that the old
man was none other than John Holds
worth, the famous dramatic critic of the
Times.
"That five-ac5 tragedy in blank verse
my professional connection .
with the stage.
81 next turned to newspaper writing.
The London Rer5er was the first paper
became associated with. It died
Then / purchased n paper called ZHc {
-eoder-a six penny weekly after the /
tyle of the Saturday ReUielC, very heavy /
md deep. 1t got into deep water and
lied also. While connected with these
papers l did great deal of sea story
writing under various nOnas de PlHnsc.
No, don't much care to give you the
u9Dls de plume. would not like to have
the stories resurrected and republished
as has been done in a number of cases
with other authors writings. [ prefer
them to remain buried.
''By this time l was married and be-
gan to write the books that / am glad to
know have been very successful. Joseph
Cowan, of the Newcastle ChrORicle, offer
ed me a situation on his paper and [
took that, and after some time became
connected with the Daily Telegraph,
which connection still exists"
W. Clark Russell, when writing for .
the Telegraph, does not use his real name, /
but signs himself "a Seafarer" His
short articles under this name are OK
ceedingly, readable and through the col
umns of the Telegraph command very
sort of sketches have been republished
in book form.
"How long does it usually take You
to write stOryG'
THAT entirely depends upon my
health. The Wreck of the GrOsvenOr'
Was completed in three months. The
Sailors Sweetheart occupied me for four
months. OF course my health was good
In i'll health the Golden Hope took me
a year to write. [ rather think the
Golden Hope has the best plot of any
of my novels. You know do not de
pend very much upon plots. Ny books
are more like an elaborate log book than
anything else. .
''What part of your writing DO you
consider the best p
"Well, that's very curious question
to ask me of my own books. Let me
see. l rather think that the description
of the collision in Jacks Courtship' is
about as good as anything l have writ
ten, and the 'VoyagetO st. Paul's' also
like, but it may not occur to the readers
that way"
"YOur books have very large sale in
America, [ suppose you know, Mr.. Rus
SELL
$50 l have been told repeatedly. But
other than from heresay l don't know
very much about that. When it is
known that ] do not get penny from
the sale of my books in America it can
be believed that l take very little inter
est in the sale over there. l was rather
amused the other day on receiving a
copy of Lady Maud from America
marked sixth edition Now, that, [
suppose, means that the book has been
quite n success over there. Well, l
did not know it was published Ill
America, although l supposed it very
likely would be, as the Others had been
before. The copyright law that is such
a bane to all authors on both sides OF
the Atlantic affects me very severely, If |
may believe the reports of the sale OF
my books in America.
"'The Frozen Pirate, which my
agent is soon to publish, is an exception.
[ always get paid for the advance sheets
sent to newspapers. When [ speak of
not receiving anything for my stories
from America | refer to the book form
of the stories, not to the newspapers
that buy advanced rights. You have
not read The Frozen Pirate yet | sup
posel Well, l think it rather good"
"Have you many stories in handl"
"Thc only stories unpublished are
The Frozen Pirate, soon to be brought
out, and The Death Ship which will
be published next February. I took q
trip to the Cape to get material for the
Death Ship. It is to be my version of
the phantom ship and think [ have a
rather original rendering of the old
story, but it is not yet open for public
( examination.
/ "What [ have tried to teach in my
works is that there is no more unroman-
/ tic fellows in the world than the sailors.
/ Sailors are the most unnautical men in
! the world. They don't sing sea songs
/ and hitch their trousers and talk with